Back to the Future (McLaren’s Version). Between the success of Titanic and the founding of Google, now a sponsor of the Woking team, let’s revisit 1998, the year in which McLaren won its last championship with the car designed by Adrian Newey.
The Woking team is proving to be the true undisputed star of this Formula 1 season with the MCL38, which seems to dance to a melody that only Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, along with the papaya team, seem to hear, maintaining a 41-point lead over Red Bull. Certainly, with six races still to go in the 2024 season, the game is still open, even though the odds seem to be heavily in favor of Andrea Stella’s team.
Winning this season’s championship would bring the title back to Woking after a long period; McLaren’s last championship, in fact, dates back 26 years and was won for the first time by Mika Hakkinen during the Japanese Grand Prix.. It was the year 1998 and the reality that served as the backdrop to the Formula 1 Championship was completely different from what we experience today. But rewinding the tape, what was happening in the world when the British team was last at the top of the world?
On the cinematic front, director James Cameron, along with the cast of Titanic, was celebrating the victory of 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Song with ‘My Heart Will Go On‘ by Celine Dion, while Friends was just starting its run as a sitcom, with the fifth season just released (of the ten produced in total until 2004). On the radio, the number 1 song on the UK charts was ‘Believe‘ by Cher, which also became the best-selling single of the year in the UK. Across the ocean, it was Monica dominating the Billboard charts with ‘The First Night,’ after duetting with Brandy on ‘The Boy is Mine,’ another major hit of 1998.
Speaking of technology, it was during that year that the search engine that changed the world of online information, Google, was founded, becoming a partner of McLaren in 2022. In the meantime, for console enthusiasts, Nintendo was releasing the new Game Boy Color for the first time, while F1 fans would soon be playing Formula 1 98 on the PlayStation.
And in Formula 1? Adrian Newey was designing the MP4/13.
The lights for the 1998 season turned on with Jacques Villeneuve as the reigning world champion alongside Williams; during the previous season, the Canadian had managed to beat Michael Schumacher for the title after a collision during the final race at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Spain. The contact proved very costly for the German, who was disqualified from the championship.
Despite the previous year being dominated by the Grove team, 1998 was a season that left the British team hungry after two consecutive successful championships, while the Grand Prix victories were contested between McLaren and Ferrari, except for the one at the Belgian Grand Prix claimed by Damon Hill, marking his last victory in Formula 1 with Jordan.
The ace up the sleeve for the Woking team was the collaboration with English engineer Adrian Newey, who designed the MP4/13. This partnership proved to be crucial and exceptional in leading McLaren to win both titles. During that year, the current McLaren drivers were not yet born, nor were Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda, and Franco Colapinto; however, there were three world champions on the grid: Schumacher, Hill, and Villeneuve. This season, the same is true, along with Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen.
Photo: McLaren
